My alarm went off at 5:45am this morning. It was still dark out. I had enough of my mental faculties to make a cup of tea and head out the door, thankfully not forgetting anything. I ate my breakfast (granola bars) in the school cafeteria under too-bright fluorescent lighting as the sun rose. After changing into scrubs and lab coat, with all of the accountrements of junior surgery dangling off of me or sticking out of pockets, we began our first live surgery lab.

I was the one to place the catheter (perfectly, on the first stick) and the endo-tracheal tube (my first time - also on the first try). We went through essentially the same questions we had to answer last week, while the animal was under general anesthesia. Then the surgeon came by and a groupmate and I each took care of a testicle.

For all that I worried, I was fine. I admit, previous experience placing IV catheters in cats helped me get that textbook placement today. But the intubation and castration parts were brand new and I'm so pleased with how I handled it. It gave me a good deal of confidence in my abilities and I think it finally helped me to not feel so darn panicked about the class as a whole. Just like yesterday, where I had a good case presentation (after collecting most of the data with my group but without a clinician present), I got this little tingle of excitement: I'm going to be a vet. And no, I don't intend to be in private practice, sterilizing puppies and kittens five days a week, but darn if it doesn't feel good to know that I can do it.

I will now go force-caffienate myself to get my assignment finished for tomorrow. Not a big fan of the "due the next day" business but it is what it is.